A man with a tea mission: Herbert Colclough

Last time I told you how my passion for Colclough and Vale china began and promised to tell you a bit about the man who started the Colclough company. Herbert Joseph Colclough, an ex-Mayor of Stoke-on-Trent, started the Colclough china company in 1890. I’ve not been able to find a picture of Herbert but the information I could find (from websites such as Focus on Colclough) suggests he was a driven person, which presumably must have played a large part in his company’s success and longevity. He was so passionate about pottery and developing new designs that it’s reported he used to spend the night next to his kilns, so that he could be the first to see the new designs after they’d been fired.

Herbert’s vision was to bring fine bone china to ordinary people rather than the rich few, and in doing so he made Colclough an important part of vintage bone china history. Here are some Colclough highlights in my collages below (made, you guessed it, with PicMonkey)!

Some of the early Colclough china has become very popular with collectors and with vintage china lovers who want to incorporate stylish but useable tea sets into their daily china collection. I am always on the lookout for more of this beautiful early china as I have a waiting list of customers who also share my passion – I think I could have sold some of my pieces ten times over!